LETTER: Firefighters 'swimming upstream' with paychecks

The recent article on the city's budget hearing and possible "merit-based" pay is of great concern to our firefighters.

Council member Madelyn Scales-Harris was the true voice of conscience in these proceedings. I can assure you that we on duty were watching City TV anxiously as our families' fates were being decided.

The lack of our physical presence at the hearing was more of a reflection of our weariness from working two jobs, than a reflection of satisfaction over pay and benefits. I, for one, was denied a three-hour vacation request due to staffing or I would surely have been present and accounted for.

The recent changes in our supposed "hidden paycheck" in benefits have resulted in numerous stories of increased financial stress on our families. Sick and injured family members are now being held financial hostage as increased out-of-pocket, up-front costs are held over our heads before medical care will be rendered.

We remain under staffed on our front-line apparatus. We continue to advocate for increasing our services as a point of craft and morality. However we are fed an increasingly benign stream of well practiced platitudes from city government, while being told to be grateful for swimming upstream financially.

I assure you that "merit-based" pay is an impossibility in a fire service context. I am also confident that the inherent unfairness of our situation will only become more so if this is implemented.

Bill Durkin

President, Murfreesboro Firefighters Association

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LETTER: Firefighters 'swimming upstream' with paychecks

The recent article on the city's budget hearing and possible 'merit-based' pay is of great concern to our firefighters.